LED track lighting feasible yet?

I've done some research on LED lighting. The ones intended as standard bulb replacements are really expensive (each bulb has to have a ballast, and the LEDs inside have to be of the highest possible output). Even the 12v DC LED mini spotlights (for track lighting, G5.3 base) are very expensive when you figure how many of them you'll need to get the necessary lumens.

I figure LEDs are the way of the future, but not quite yet ... however, I want to install some track *now*. What I'd like to do is install 12v track (one ballast for the whole track, hidden in the ceiling) and put halogens on the track. But I want the track to be compatible with LEDs for the future, and I've been told that ordinary 12v ballasts deliver more than 12v when the load is really low, as it would be with LEDs. So supposedly I'd need a voltage regulated ballast.

Has anyone here investigated these issues? Is there a workable LED track lighting solution now? If not, does the idea of putting in a track for halogen but trying to be LED compatible for the future make sense? Is the information about needing a voltage regulated ballast correct? Where would one get track with such a ballast?

Or is all this crazy, and I should just install some off-the-shelf halogen track kit from Lowes or Home Depot?

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LED track lighting feasible yet?

BTW LED require regulated current not regulated voltage. Most are not compatible with other light type ballasts, but I have seen straight tube fluorescent replacement LEDs that can work with a normal tube ballast.

LED track lighting feasible yet?

Ah, what's my goal. (Good question! - I should have started there.)

1. To put in track of any sort, which will give my wife much better light than the single mini-flood currently in her office (a room most people would use as a small bedroom).
2. To keep the heat output of that light as low as reasonably possible, relative to light output - that room gets warm in the summer.
3. To keep the price tag reasonable.
4. To keep whatever I install reasonably attractive - CFL fixtures on a 115v track would fail this test as far as I've yet seen.

If LEDs fail point 3 still, then 12v halogen are better than incandescent, and 12v xenon are better than halogen, as far as I understand, although xenon are a little pricy. CFL would be better than xenon on point 2, but as I said, fails on point 4, unless there's some clever product I don't know about.

BTW, I'm a little cheezed over CFLs. They work well enough with the standard or large spiral in bare-bulb situations (like in a table lamp) but seem to burn out faster than advertised in enclosed overhead fixtures. I also replaced incandescent recessed floods in my kitchen ceiling (the 65w variety) with CFLs of the same shape (intended for that purpose) and unlike regular CFLs, they have a painfully slow warm-up period (and one brand started buzzing and randomly turning off/on).

LED track lighting feasible yet?

Tube fluorescent would definitely fail the esthetic quality test :-)

Going slightly off-topic to comment on the E27 screw base LED bulbs, most of those fall way short of the lumens from a 65W recessed incandescent flood, so if that's what you've got, you can't really use the LED as a replacement. However, here's one http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51...pot_Light.html that claims 660 lumens at 12 watts (well, assume a little waste going from AC to DC, but that's still equal or better than CFL, without the drawbacks of CFL). So the technology is coming, but it's still expensive and hard to find.

LED track lighting feasible yet?

I don't typically like the look of track lighting. Do you have access to the ceiling via an attic space? Why not put some cans in? Or the recessed tube as suggested (although i don't like that either, to big)